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Jury hands down death penalty in 1975 murder case

Jury hands down death penalty in 1975 murder case

Jurors sentenced Willie Roy Jenkins to death after four hours of deliberations on Thursday, the first death sentence handed down in more than 20 years in Hays County.

Earlier: A Hays County jury has started deliberations to decide if Willie Roy Jenkins will receive the death penalty in the 1975 murder of Sheryl Ann Norris in San Marcos.

Jenkins was convicted of capital murder on May 31. The punishment phase of the trial has lasted for nearly two weeks. The jury left the courtroom at 12:07 p.m.

Attorneys for the prosecution argued that Jenkins is a continuing threat to society because of his convictions in four rapes in California and Texas that occurred before and after Norris’s rape and murder in November 1975. The prosecution also presented evidence of brutal assaults allegedly committed by Jenkins against inmates and staff at the Coalinga State Hospital in California, where Jenkins was indefinitely committed by the state after he was released from prison.

The defense argued that Jenkins is a product of his upbringing. Shuttled between the homes of family members and suffering abuse, Jenkins was raised in a poor area of Houston, defense attorney Norman Lansford said. The defense also argued that he was the victim of a predatory sexual relationship with his ex-wife, Merle Jenkins — 15 years older than Willie Jenkins, who was a high school student when they began seeing each other.

The defense also argued that Jenkins, 59, is old and sick and should not receive the death penalty.

The jury will decide whether to sentence him to death or life in prison.